UK Warned On Climate Change

The UK government needs to reduce emissions and prepare itself for climate change.

The Committee on Climate Change has submitted its first report to the new UK Parliament and the first report under sections 36 and 59 of the Climate Change Act. This report by the Committee covers both progress towards meeting carbon budgets and progress on adaption to climate change.

The report asks the UK government to take urgent action in order to prepare for the impact of climate change. The Committee says that the ministers should focus on the future risks of heat waves and floods.

The report has also stated that much needs to be done in order to keep the emissions on track. Apart from this the report has warned a decision to stop onshore wind farm subsidies early could potentially add £1bn a year to bills.

This report basically looks at the progress towards meeting carbon emission targets and how the UK is preparing for climate change risks. Chairman of the Committee Lord Deben and Lord Krebs stated that urgent measures were needed in order to address increased flood risk to homes and to protect the farmland from decline in its productivity.

Moreover Lord Krebs stated that by 2050s the sort of heat waves that the UK might experience in the coming days will become a norm. The committee has advised that action needs to be taken in order to make homes and buildings safer during heat waves.

Apart from this Lord Deben stated that decisions on carbon cutting policies are needed at the moment. The committee has advised the government on many things such as extend funding for low carbon electricity generation to 2025 and continue the support for efficient and low emission vehicles.

Apart from this the committee advised that the government should also develop new infrastructure that is resilient to the impacts of climate change and also act to counter the decline in productive farmland.

Now the government has decided to end subsidies from April 2016 for onshore wind and the Climate Change Committee has stated that this decision of the government will cost the public around an extra £1bn a year if the lost energy is replaced by offshore wind. Well the government basically responded to complaints about wind farms in the countryside by announcing an early end to the onshore wind subsidy program.

The committee has stated that it is the duty of the government under the Climate Change Act to explain to the general public that how it intends to replace this energy from wind turbines on land and also to tell people that how much will this cost. This is because the committee has stated that onshore wind is the cheapest option for bill payers and the government hasn’t offered any explanation as to how it will fill this gap.